Ivo Pannaggi's work "Postal Collage, 28 June 1926" is among the works featured in the Yale Art Gallery's new exhibition "The Synthetic Century."

Exhibition explores ever-expanding art of collage

Artist Robert Motherwell once described the medium of collage as "a form of play," saying it made him feel "more joyful ... less austere." The 90-year history of the art form is traced in "The Synthetic Century -- Collage from Cubism to Postmodernism," a new exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery, which will be on view through April 28. A collage (the French term for pasting or gluing) is a picture made by sticking cut or torn papers and/or other found materials onto a two-dimensional paper or canvas. Invented in 1912 during the collaborative explorations of Cubism, the medium influenced nearly every subsequent artistic movement of the century, including Futurism, Dada, German Expressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Postmodernism. By combining actual objects (a fragment of newsprint, wallpaper, rope, etc.) with traditional fine art materials (oil paint, charcoal, watercolor), the Cubists challenged a picture's illusory power as well as the traditional separation of representation and reality, according to Elisabeth Hodermarsky, assistant curator of prints, drawings and photographs, who organized the exhibit. "Collage is an art form that has self-consciously embraced the present, the avant-garde, and has consistently used the materials of its time to reflect -- and reflect upon -- contemporary culture," she says. "The Synthetic Century" traces the ever-expanding repertoire of non-traditional materials used by artists working in collage throughout the century. The show includes 55 selections from the Yale Art Gallery. The exhibition begins with works by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, created with a variety of cut and pasted paper. The Italian Futurists integrated a wider range of media in their work and infused it with the "dynamism" their movement prized, notes Hodermarsky. A number of Dada collages by the German artist Kurt Schwitters show the artist incorporating such elements as discarded bus and theater tickets, bits of packaging labels and pieces of fabric. By the 1940s, artists in America were embracing the collage aesthetic, according to Hodermarsky. These artists, she notes, found in collage "a medium in which they could explore the formal properties of composing with color, pattern, texture and shape through a reaffixing of diverse scraps of fabrics, papers and found objects." The variety of new fabricated materials that appeared on the market by the second half of the 20th century were increasingly included in the works of many artists, says Hodermarsky, adding, "One has the impression from their work that these artists no longer frequented art supply stores, but rather acquired their materials at the local pharmacy, hardware store, market or dumpster." For example, one of the works in the exhibit, Robert Rauschenberg's "Well Nell" (1959) is made of "oil paint, parachute fabric, gray, off-white and black sheer fabrics, opaque fabric, fabric tape, offset reproductions, a flesh-colored plastic piece, and various printed and pasted papers, mounted with polymer on canvas/mattress ticking." Today artists continued to push the parameters of the collage medium with their ever-more inventive techniques and playful inclusions, notes Hodermarsky. "The Synthetic Century -- Collage from Cubism to Postmodernism" is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an essay by Hodermarsky tracing the history of collage in the 20th century. The exhibition is supported by an endowment made possible by a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Yale Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Thursdays), and Sunday, 1-6 p.m. An entrance for persons using wheelchairs is located at 201 York St., with an unmetered parking space nearby. For recorded general or program information, call (203) 432-0600 or visit the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery. T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Yale architect leading effort to rebuild Twin Tower site Cellist will tour nation as winner of Sphinx Prize University awards sailing varsity status Town-gown project aims to bring health information to underserved Nurse warns against repeating Tuskegee abuses Unique program will assess democracy at work Doing good is good for you, Yale chaplain tells students Speakers to explore interrelationship of 'Law and Truth' Exhibition explores ever-expanding art of collage Fourth annual Klezmerpalooza festival returns home to Yale Policy Statement: Adding Varsity Opportunities Yale Books in Brief Campus Notes Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events|In the News|Bulletin Board Yale Scoreboard|Classified Ads|Search Archives|Deadlines Bulletin Staff|Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page